Graphic: the highs and lows of the Lions tour

Player ratings for South Africa and Lions

ON THE menu in Johannesburg, just deserts; and also what was, in the circumstances, one of the best and most heroic performances in the history of the Lions. They had to absorb the savage blow of losing a second Test in which they were cantering, they had to absorb such a list of injuries that Mike Phillips, the brilliant scrum-half, had to play the last quarter of this magnificent occasion in the centre, where he would have been roughly the 65th choice.

And if you know your rugby touring, if you know how ferociously difficult it is to win the final Test, and especially one played in Johannesburg where the Springboks have hardly ever lost, then you would not devalue this Lions epic by as much as one point.

Reflecting in this dangerous city last night, I simply could not conclude that South Africa had proved themselves a better team than Paul O’Connell’s men after what has been one of the finest series in history.

South Africa were completely and utterly shut down. The Lions played such an effervescent brand of rugby, breaking the Springbok line almost at will, and it was quite incredible that in the closing stages of this almost endless season, they were still buzzing around in attack and still making colossal hits on the defensive line. By the end, too, they were pulverising South Africa up front, with the likes of Andrew Sheridan, Phil Vickery, John Hayes and O’Connell rumbling forward. John Smit, the South Africa captain, has been outstanding in this series but after an afternoon against Sheridan, he wandered off looking like an old man who had gone on too long.

It was also yet another amazing triumph for Ian McGeechan, the tactical master. The Lions used the sheer front-on power of the South Africans, using South African momentum to attack at the sides of the intended tackle, playing a brand of rugby for which Britain and Ireland is not normally renowned.

But even deeper at the heart of this victory was sporting heroism. The togetherness of these Lions in adversity has been almost beyond praise, and there is surely no one on the planet who can begrudge them this thunderous victory.

Peter de Villiers, the South Africa coach, began the week by demeaning the game with his refusal to condemn eye-gouging. He demeaned the Springbok jersey by leaving out some leading players. In the second half, in a panic, he brought on the fifth cavalry, only to find that their bugle was silenced.

South Africa wore armbands in support, so they said, of Bakkies Botha, who was suspended after the second Test. Botha’s suspension was then confirmed by an independent tribunal, and Adam Jones, the Lions prop whom Botha illegally charged, could be out of the game for nine months. The sheer inappropriate pomposity of South Africa’s gesture took the breath away, and they should remember that their status as world champions conveys a responsibility to the game at large, not simply to one player.

How much more fitting were the words of Smit afterwards. “This has been a fantastic series, and to tie the Lions is the biggest thing in sport. They must continue. They were a fantastic side today and they deserved it.”

The opening stages had been significant for the crushing of the Beast. Vickery had suffered an individual disaster when he played against Tendai Mtawarira in Durban. But here in the first scrum, at a psychologically devastating moment, Vickery and Matthew Rees blasted Mtawarira clean out of the scrum, the referee awarded the Lions a penalty and it was 3-0, and sweet revenge. When the revived Vickery was replaced at the end to a standing ovation from 25,000 Lions fans, he was bawling: “Who is the Beast?” to the Johannesburg skies.